October 20, 2007

First the bad news you already know, the mainstream media is an awfully concentrated place, with most of the stuff you watch owned by the same batch of people. Case in point, this chart and article done by U.S. lefty mag the Nation.

Now, bad news you don't know. Apparently emo-pop band Death Cab for Cutie are a risk to the safety of the U.S. A hard disc containing the next album by Death Cab guitarist Chris Walla was confiscated at the Canada-U.S. border. It must be all those angst-fuelled lyrics and Ben Gibbard's high-pitched voice.

Not to be a complete downer, here's a Greenpeace google map mashup that lets you track whales in almost real-time. Just think of all of those whales, swimming around, munching on krill and herring and what not. There, feel better?

No, well, what about the fact that you'll be able to download every book on the Booker shortlist. That includes this year's winner The Gathering by Anne Enright. The story of a brother's suicide forces a woman to weave through her family's troubled past.... hmm, on second thought, I'll stick with the whales.